Twenty Two
- Episode aired Feb 10, 1961
- TV-PG
- 25m
IMDb RATING
7.8/10
3.2K
YOUR RATING
While in the hospital recovering from overwork, Liz Powell keeps dreaming about going down to the hospital morgue.While in the hospital recovering from overwork, Liz Powell keeps dreaming about going down to the hospital morgue.While in the hospital recovering from overwork, Liz Powell keeps dreaming about going down to the hospital morgue.
Arlene Martel
- Nurse in Morgue
- (as Arline Sax)
Carole Conn
- Sax Double
- (uncredited)
Jay Overholts
- PA Announcer
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
Joseph Sargent
- Ticket Clerk
- (uncredited)
Rod Serling
- Narrator
- (uncredited)
- …
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBarbara Nichols accidentally fell when she was running down the airplane stairs and back on to the runway. Although Barbara's fall on the tarmac wasn't in the script, director Jack Smight loved it and kept this shot in.
- GoofsDuring Rod Serling's plug for the following week's show, the middle section has clearly been dubbed.
- Quotes
[repeated line]
Nurse in Morgue: Room for one more, honey!
- ConnectionsEdited into Twilight-Tober-Zone: Twenty Two (2021)
Featured review
Citizen Kane in black and white!
In one of the best episodes of the entire series, Barbara Nichols plays Liz Powell, a stripper hospitalized because of nervous fatigue, and now suffering from a horrific recurring nightmare. She is having trouble differentiating between dream and reality and, worst of all, getting anyone to believe her. A lot has been said about how this is one of the few episodes of the show filmed on videotape, although I have to say that in this case it doesn't really detract from the experience of the episode at all. One IMDb reviewer claims that it was filmed on video for budgetary reasons, which may or may not be true but either way it makes no sense at all, given that the show was enormously popular in its second season and is not exactly famous for extravagance. Where would all the money have been going?
At any rate, the show is well-written, to a certain extent, although also has its share of script blunders. At one point early in the episode, Liz's doctor (a wonderfully subdued performance by Jonathan Harris of Lost in Space fame) is explaining the dream to her dirtbag agent, describing how she "believes the nurse in her dream is one of our night nurses here at the hospital." "How should I know what any of your nurses look like?" she replies indignantly. Why does she argue? He's only repeating her own words. It's like she's arguing with herself.
On the other hand, this could just be a reflection of her fragile state of mind. The majority of the episode is purely brilliant and genuinely frightening.
I developed an intense fear of hallways from watching The Shining when I was a kid, and that fear was brought back as Liz wanders down the hall, turning a corner just in time to see the elevator doors closing on a weirdly stolid nurse, standing rigid with her head in shadow, bringing to mind those two twins in the Shining. Unbelievably creepy in both cases.
The way the elevator is followed using the dial on the wall is a brilliant device for creating real tension, and Arlene Martel is almost bizarrely effective as the nightmare nurse, creating truly chilling moments despite the filming format and obviously cheap sets (seriously, did anyone believe that hallway behind her?).
But what I really love about the episode is the sense of powerlessness that Liz suffers from as we are taken through the dream for the second time. Her doctor suggested not reaching for the water glass, thus breaking the chain of events in the dream and hopefully changing the rest of it.
The line between reality and dreamland is blurred with amazing effectiveness as we watch Liz wake up in her dream, still clearly remembering the conversation from reality and bringing it into play in her dream by resisting the glass of water and reaching for a cigarette instead. And by the way, notice that when we see a shot of the night nurse just before the beginning of the second dream sequence, the clock on the wall reads 12:10. Get it? Get it? It's always interesting to consider the films that appear to have been inspired by twilight zone episodes, in this case possibly the disappointing Jim Carrey thriller 23, and definitely the outstanding teen thriller Final Destination (not necessarily the two disappointing sequels).
One IMDb user mentions that this episode has one of the worst special effects in recent memory. I'm hoping they are referring to the bad backdrop (which itself is clearly nothing more than a painted hallway a few feet behind the actor, but still adds to the surrealism of the dream sequences) and not the plane exploding near the end of the episode, which was a remarkably impressive effect, given the time period. Another interesting blunder is the badly botched dubbed correction of Serling's introduction of next week's story, clearly added in years later and not even remotely matching the rest of the monologue.
A bigger problem I had with the sequence was the lack of thought put into how people behave. I imagine in an effort to hasten toward ending the episode, when Liz bumps into the woman and causes her to drop her vase, which shatters across the floor, the woman turns without a word and walks away. Maybe she wasn't getting paid much and wanted to get out of there. It reminds me of movies where cars come within inches of a catastrophic collision, and immediately after slamming on their brakes, they hit the gas and continue on like nothing happened.
Nevertheless, this is an exemplary episode of the show, and works on more levels than can be described in a single review. I love how it ends without really concluding the whole problem of reality vs. dreamland, making you think over the episode and what happened, that's one of the reasons that this episode will really stay with you. Bravo!
Oh, and I realize that Citizen Kane was also in black and white. Thanks for reading all the way to the end of my review!
At any rate, the show is well-written, to a certain extent, although also has its share of script blunders. At one point early in the episode, Liz's doctor (a wonderfully subdued performance by Jonathan Harris of Lost in Space fame) is explaining the dream to her dirtbag agent, describing how she "believes the nurse in her dream is one of our night nurses here at the hospital." "How should I know what any of your nurses look like?" she replies indignantly. Why does she argue? He's only repeating her own words. It's like she's arguing with herself.
On the other hand, this could just be a reflection of her fragile state of mind. The majority of the episode is purely brilliant and genuinely frightening.
I developed an intense fear of hallways from watching The Shining when I was a kid, and that fear was brought back as Liz wanders down the hall, turning a corner just in time to see the elevator doors closing on a weirdly stolid nurse, standing rigid with her head in shadow, bringing to mind those two twins in the Shining. Unbelievably creepy in both cases.
The way the elevator is followed using the dial on the wall is a brilliant device for creating real tension, and Arlene Martel is almost bizarrely effective as the nightmare nurse, creating truly chilling moments despite the filming format and obviously cheap sets (seriously, did anyone believe that hallway behind her?).
But what I really love about the episode is the sense of powerlessness that Liz suffers from as we are taken through the dream for the second time. Her doctor suggested not reaching for the water glass, thus breaking the chain of events in the dream and hopefully changing the rest of it.
The line between reality and dreamland is blurred with amazing effectiveness as we watch Liz wake up in her dream, still clearly remembering the conversation from reality and bringing it into play in her dream by resisting the glass of water and reaching for a cigarette instead. And by the way, notice that when we see a shot of the night nurse just before the beginning of the second dream sequence, the clock on the wall reads 12:10. Get it? Get it? It's always interesting to consider the films that appear to have been inspired by twilight zone episodes, in this case possibly the disappointing Jim Carrey thriller 23, and definitely the outstanding teen thriller Final Destination (not necessarily the two disappointing sequels).
One IMDb user mentions that this episode has one of the worst special effects in recent memory. I'm hoping they are referring to the bad backdrop (which itself is clearly nothing more than a painted hallway a few feet behind the actor, but still adds to the surrealism of the dream sequences) and not the plane exploding near the end of the episode, which was a remarkably impressive effect, given the time period. Another interesting blunder is the badly botched dubbed correction of Serling's introduction of next week's story, clearly added in years later and not even remotely matching the rest of the monologue.
A bigger problem I had with the sequence was the lack of thought put into how people behave. I imagine in an effort to hasten toward ending the episode, when Liz bumps into the woman and causes her to drop her vase, which shatters across the floor, the woman turns without a word and walks away. Maybe she wasn't getting paid much and wanted to get out of there. It reminds me of movies where cars come within inches of a catastrophic collision, and immediately after slamming on their brakes, they hit the gas and continue on like nothing happened.
Nevertheless, this is an exemplary episode of the show, and works on more levels than can be described in a single review. I love how it ends without really concluding the whole problem of reality vs. dreamland, making you think over the episode and what happened, that's one of the reasons that this episode will really stay with you. Bravo!
Oh, and I realize that Citizen Kane was also in black and white. Thanks for reading all the way to the end of my review!
helpful•268
- Anonymous_Maxine
- Jul 8, 2008
Details
- Runtime25 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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